Employment outcomes for graduates with disabilities continue to lag behind the rest of their cohort. AGCAS research and insights manager, Claire Toogood, delves into the data and provides five recommendations for creating better understanding of the issues
Over the past two decades, the What Happens Next? series has specifically focused on the outcomes for disabled graduates after higher education.
Earlier this month, the publication of What Happens Next in Challenging Times? from the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) showed that all graduates in 2020 experienced relatively poorer employment outcomes, with graduate employment bouncing back in 2021.
However, the total employment gap experienced by graduates with disabilities remained. As a group, disabled graduates were less likely to be in employment 15 months after their studies than graduates with no known disability. We know that full-time employment may not be the target for all graduates, but it is useful as a measure of the difference in outcomes.
Total employment refers to the percentage of graduates reporting that they were in any form of employment in the Graduate Outcomes survey. This includes full-time work, part-time work, voluntary roles and employment with further study. The graduate disability employment gap is the difference between this calculated total employment percentage for disabled graduates, and for graduates with no known disability.
So, a gap of 3.4% means that an additional 3.4% of disabled graduates are not in any form of employment, when compared to graduates with no known disability. The graduate disability employment gap exists at all levels of qualification.
| 2020 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|
| First degree | 3.1% | 3.4% |
| Postgraduate taught degree | 5.1% | 4.5% |
| Postgraduate research degree | 5.7% | 2.2% |
Levels of highly skilled employment generally increase with qualification level, but this is not always true for disabled graduates. When disabled graduates were employed, they experienced a lower proportion of highly skilled, secure employment, and a lower likelihood of using their qualification in their work.
The Graduate Outcomes survey data showed that a lower proportion of disabled graduates from first degree and postgraduate taught qualifications were in secure employment, compared with graduates with no known disability in both 2020 and 2021. This was also the case for disabled postgraduate research graduates in 2020.
Positively, in 2021, disabled graduates from postgraduate research courses reported higher job security. Levels of permanent or open-ended contracts, and fixed-term contracts lasting over 12 months, were broadly in line with graduates with no known disability. However, in both 2020 and 2021, disabled graduates from first degree and postgraduate taught courses were still more likely than graduates with no known disability to be working in a role where their qualification was not required.
In both 2020 and 2021, autistic graduates experienced the lowest levels of full-time employment at all qualification levels.
Graduates with disabilities experience diverse outcomes
Like any other diverse group, graduate outcomes vary within the cohort of disabled students. Some outperform graduates with no known disability in terms of graduate outcomes. For example, in both 2020 and 2021, graduates with specific learning difficulties, which can include dyslexia, dyspraxia and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), reported levels of full-time employment that were higher than those of graduates with no known disability. This was true across all levels of qualification.
Other disabled graduates experience poorer graduate outcomes on a range of indicators. In both 2020 and 2021, autistic graduates experienced the lowest levels of full-time employment at all qualification levels. They also frequently experienced higher part-time employment and unemployment, and lower levels of highly skilled work and secure employment contracts.
Unfortunately, the What Happens Next? report series shows that this has been the case for many years. AGCAS co-launched What Happens Next in Challenging Times? with Shaw Trust research on the disability employment gap for graduates. This focused on the lived experience of autistic graduates and blind and visually impaired graduates.
Sharing the voice and experiences of disabled graduates, particularly autistic graduates, and amplifying their reflections on what changes they wanted to see in higher education and recruitment helps to share the stories that exist behind the data.
We also know that other characteristics like gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background can affect graduate outcomes. Greater understanding of the ways in which other characteristics intersect with disability is needed to help in the work towards the elimination of the graduate disability employment gap.
Supporting disabled students into the workplace
What Happens Next in Challenging Times? shares five recommendations to build better understanding of disabled graduates’ outcomes and to better support disabled students and graduates during and after their time in higher education:
- Maintain national focus on the graduate disability employment gap.
- Higher education institutions and employers should adopt the Disabled Student Commitment, committing resources and support to disabled students and graduates.1
- All graduate outcomes data should ensure parity between disabled graduates and graduates with no known disability, and include breakdowns by disability.
- Further collaborative research on the experiences and outcomes of autistic graduates is urgently needed.
- Higher education institutions should review long-term employability support for graduates to help mitigate any additional barriers and prioritise support for disabled graduates to prevent the compounding of existing inequalities.
From here, AGCAS want to continue the conversation by engaging with our members, other sector bodies and beyond, to support the delivery of these recommendations, and support equitable outcomes for disabled graduates.
Notes
1. The Disabled Student Commitment, Disabled Students' Commission.
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